In what should not be a significant surprise, Apple is already hard at work on OS X 10.9, the next major version of its Mac operating system. Signs of OS X 10.9 showing up in web logs were publicized [Google translation] earlier today by Czech site Letem svetem Applem, and 9to5Macconfirmed that some of the OS X 10.9 hits showing up on its own site were coming from Apple's corporate network.

A look at our own logs shows similar activity, although there has not been a noticeable uptick in hits over the past several months. Rather, we have been seeing a number of spikes in activity since at least mid-August, consistent with limited internal testing during the working week. Similar patterns were previously seen for OS X 10.8 in 2011 and OS X 10.7 in 2009/2010.

It is trivial to fake such identification strings, meaning that at least some of the data should be considered untrustworthy. But hits identified as coming from Apple's own networks carry a much greater likelihood of being legitimate, and so it seems fairly clear that Apple is indeed using systems running OS X 10.9 to browse the Internet.

A release date for OS X 10.9 is currently unknown, but Apple has stated that is moving toward a more rapid development cycle on OS X, with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion's July 2012 launch coming almost exactly one year after the debut of OS X 10.7 Lion. Assuming a similar timeline for OS X 10.9, Apple may begin releasing developer previews in early 2013 ahead of a public launch in the middle of the year.

I wish Apple would release bigger updates, like they used to, rather than incremental updates. Look no further than the fact that 10.8 came out after 10.7.4, remember the days... Tiger made it all the way to 10.4.11 even after Leopard came out.

I wish Apple would release bigger updates, like they used to, rather than incremental updates. Look no further than the fact that 10.8 came out after 10.7.4, remember the days... Tiger made it all the way to 10.4.11 even after Leopard came out.

That had a lot to do with the cross-over to x86 CPUs, lots of bugs in the early releases. But I do agree with your premise!